Welcome To Our RV Home Page

To our visiting friends,

Welcome to our fifth wheel web site. The process of looking for the right RV, finding the right dealer, and learning everything about how to care for our new pride and joy has been a long and arduous journey. We put together this web site for two reasons:

  • To help out others so they don't have to go through the same long process we have.
  • To create for ourselves a repository of the knowledge that was so hard to obtain. We are writing it down on line because as one "matures" they are effected by a condition called CRS "Can't Remember Stuff" (you can substitute other words if you like).

Either way, we hope that the things you find here are helpful.

              Sandy & Shirley


Our Pages

Thumbnails Thumbnail pictures of our Everest 343L. Each thumbnail links to a larger picture.
Gallery All of the larger pictures our our Everest 343L in one place. Don't go here with a dial up modem!
Everest 343L Modifications This is a collection of pictures of interesting modifications that others have made to their 343L's.
Brake Smart Custom install of Brake Smart controller in our F-350.
Wayne's Stabilizer This item really works as advertized. Just be very careful where you place it under your RV. Read our review to see what we are talking about.
Avoiding the Weight Police Deals with finding the right fifth wheel that your tow vehicle can handle.
Towing in Overdrive This is the direct quote from the Ford website and a link to the actual Ford document.
Political Opinion Political things -- conservative

RV.net Signature Links (Links to Vendor Websites)

RV.net has limited it's signature to 256 characters. The new size limitation makes it difficult to provide links in the forum to the products we use so we are providing the links here. We are not associated with any of these products, other than we have bought them and use them.

  • Brake Smart controller, it may cost $435, but it was worth every penny.
  • C-betr mirrors, these mirrors give great visibility, but they only work on Fords.
  • 2004 Everest 343L, Love our unit.
  • TrailAir Centerpoint and Pin Box, definitely make the ride smooth
  • RotoChoks, excellent wheel chocks. When we got ours they also included a set of handles for the front jacks.
  • Fold-Away Pet Carrier, if you have a pet, these are a must. They fold up into a very small package for storage when not in use.
  • Thermos Grill 2 GO, Very nice grill, great for breakfast, but there is no open flame with this unit.
  • Shark cordless vacuum, small, rechargeable vacuum for quick cleanups. We even use it sometimes for final cleanups when we get home.
  • Wayne's Stabilizer, This really takes care of the side-to-side movement but be careful where you place it! See "Our Pages" for a review.

Checklists

PDI This is the list that we used for our pre-delivery inspection.
Depart Things to do as we leave home or a campsite.
Arrive Things to do when we get to a campsite or pull back into the driveway.
Winterizing
De-Winterizing & Annual Maintenance


Helpful Pages We Have Found On The Web

http://www.recvehicle.com/laws.html State laws regarding all kind of stuff: Triple towing, riding in 5er, maximum overall length, etc.
Burning Eyes Caused by Formaldehyde, cured with ammonia. Pour a cup of household ammonia in an aluminum pan and leave it in your closed up 5er for 24 to 48 hours, then air out the 5er for an hour or so. If that does not completely eliminate the burning eyes, repeat the process one more time. Here is a web site that talks about it.
Covering your 5er for the winter Before you think of putting a cover on your RV, read this thread.
Tailgate Up or Down? Here is an extract that we found from a U. of Notre Dame study. At the bottom of the extract we reference two other university studies.
Roof Care Make sure you know what your roof is make of, TPO, EPDM, or something else. If it is TPO, Murphy's Oil Soap is the correct product to use. If it is EPDM, Spic-N-Span is among the suggested products. What you do for one could harm the other. You can access the manufacturer's web site at the following link, Alpha Systems Inc.
Backing up a 5th wheel
https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas/non-html/2005/bb_pdf/18-29.pdf
http://www.rvtowingtips.com/
University of Michigan GM truck study This is a study showing how various changes to your truck effects the wind drag. Some of the results are surprising.
Waxing Frenzy Haven't tried this yet, but didn't want to lose the link
Vehicle Security System This is a must see!
http://www.rvmobile.com/Tech/Trouble/cooldoc.htm How an RV refrigerator works.
http://www.discoveryowners.com/cginfo.htm Bridge clearance downloads for mapping software.
Trip Log A list of the trips we have taken and some of the picture we took.

If you have any suggestions for improving this site please contact us through "Sandy & Shirley" on the rv.net forum.